Afghan bomber strikes in crowd

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber detonated yesterday in a crowd in northern Afghanistan gathered for a traditional sporting event, killing three and injuring 40.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber detonated yesterday in a crowd in northern Afghanistan gathered for a traditional sporting event, killing three and injuring 40.

The attack was another in a series across the country in which civilians were targeted, as Afghan forces prepare to take over security responsibilities from U.S.-led international forces.

“Some participants identified the attacker and started fleeing, but still the attacker was able to detonate his vest,” said the governor of Faryab province, Abdul Haq Shafaq. Had spectators not fled, “a big catastrophe could have happened.”

In a separate incident yesterday, nine civilians were killed in the southeast province of Khost, which borders Pakistan, according to an Interior Ministry statement. Two women and four children were among the dead after their vehicle struck a landmine, the statement said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the Faryab attack, but the governor blamed the Taliban.

“They have been defeated militarily, therefore they carry out suicide attacks that are difficult to prevent.”

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack.

“The enemies of the Afghan people with their inhuman actions showed that they are always trying to target public buildings and residential areas with their barbaric attacks to kill innocent people,” Karzai said in a statement.

The attack occurred about 30 miles northeast of the provincial capital of Maimona as people gathered to see buzkashi, said Col. Mohammad Sadiq, deputy police chief for

the province.

Buzkashi is a traditional central Asian team sport in which horsemen attempt, at full gallop, to grab a dead goat from the ground and put it across a goal line.